Here are the top five reasons to move your business to the cloud
Migrating to the cloud can seem overwhelming for any business, whether it has nothing on the cloud to begin with or is partially there already with a few applications. As if there isn’t enough to do already. However, the cloud has immense benefits for a business of any size, from a start-up to a large international corporation.
Plus, cloud operations are becoming the norm. A recent study found that 94% of organizations use a cloud service in some capacity already: 91% of them use a public cloud, and 72% use a private one.
Of course, there are things to consider, and perhaps some speed bumps to overcome during the migration, but the benefits a business can reap from moving to the cloud (at least partially) far outweigh any inconveniences. Here are some of the top reasons to make the move and feel good about doing so.
Top 5 reasons to migrate to the cloud
1. Cost savings
As one might expect, this is usually the most-cited reason businesses move to a cloud service. A traditional infrastructure means money spent on hardware, IT staffing, licenses, and maintenance. Organizations also have to estimate what needs they will have down the road and pay for the infrastructure they might not actually use if they guess wrong.
Depending on the type of cloud service chosen, businesses can greatly reduce or eliminate the hardware kept on site. This cut costs spent on license fees, updates, and servers if they fail (which they inevitably will). Businesses can also pay for what they actually use and scale up or down depending on the need.
It could also mean reducing or re-allocating money spent on the IT team since many maintenance and installation services are no longer needed. This is not to say a business should necessarily cut IT staff, but it is an option. It could also mean the IT team now has the opportunity to reprioritize and focus on other projects.
2. Scalability
Scaling IT needs is difficult for any business, but especially for those with highly fluctuating demand. How can you accurately determine what you’ll need and when you’ll need it?
Retail and tech companies are great examples. Retail businesses have busy seasons, flash sales, and giveaways with huge traffic and purchase surges – think Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. Tech companies have big product launches or software releases that can run into similar issues.
Scaling with a traditional setup is doable but requires a lot of planning and waiting. Businesses have to anticipate their needs months in advance, submit a request to IT, wait for installation, test the system, and then deploy. Needless to say, that is less than ideal compared with the option to upgrade or downgrade instantly with cloud service providers.
Businesses using a cloud service can manually or automatically adjust what they’re getting, depending on their needs. Amazon Connect, for example, operates on a tier system and is scalable for businesses from 10 employees to tens of thousands. No more guessing and over-preparing. Organizations can adapt on the spot and move on with operations.
3. Flexibility and efficiency
The beauty of cloud services is that staff can access them from anywhere. SaaS platforms like Google Apps and Dropbox have completely changed the way businesses exchange and store information, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Employees can work from anywhere and still have access to the information they need to get the job done. Allowing a team to work remotely can also lead to less overhead and more cost savings. Plus, flexibility usually makes teams happier, or at least less stressed, which could boost their productivity and innovation.
Businesses can also skip the frustration of repeating or losing work with a traditional infrastructure. No more re-creating work or waiting for someone to log out before you can read a file. Since information is synced, updated, and readily available with cloud computing services, teams can collaborate in real-time and only do work once. Who doesn’t love that?
4. Security and regulations
Using localized methods means organizations are in charge of securing their own data and having a backup plan if something goes wrong, which it will. Maintaining and updating is a big-time IT commitment, and this is assuming the IT department is currently on the myriad evolving security requirements.
Many businesses use cloud providers as the backup plan to their traditional solutions or use it as their sole data storage option. Cloud hosting services take care of data security and maintenance on their servers at their locations.
However, this isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution, where businesses are forever freed from worrying about IT security and data backup. There should still be significant security measures in place locally. But the responsibility lessens.
Storing data on the cloud instead of local servers also reduces the risk of a breach. If there is a break-in in the office or an employee loses a laptop, any information stored locally is accessible. Keeping at least sensitive data in the cloud adds another layer of protection to outside threats.
This also comes into play with industries that have specific regulations on data transfers, such as health care or finance. Using a cloud service provider that is already compliant with these laws takes some of the burdens off of IT.
5. Opportunity
The most important benefit of migrating to the cloud is the hardest to pin down and explain. It’s an opportunity. IT and development teams can now create environments, test, and release new updates instead of spending the majority of their time on maintenance and upkeep. They can try new things without as much of a financial risk, which is a relief for IT and management.
Businesses don’t have to be afraid to grow or go after an opportunity because they don’t have the resources to keep up. Cloud services are instantly adaptable to accommodate those changes. Teams can take their distribution globally by putting infrastructure around the world to reduce workload and increase performance for their customers.
How to make the move, now that you know why you should
The opportunities are endless and difficult to list, but cloud services really do blow the door wide open for businesses of any size. But the work truly begins once a business decides to make the transition. What service offering is best? How about the cloud type? Is everything transitioning, or just some pieces of the business?
You don’t have to do it alone. CloudHesive can help manage your cloud ecosystem from end to end so you don’t have to spend the time or money building an internal team to do so. We can get you to the cloud and help you stay there with our Managed Services offerings. Get in touch with CloudHesive at 800-860-2040 or through our online contact form to learn about the next steps for your business.
